Navy agrees to sonar curbs to protect whales

SAN FRANCISCO To protect whales, training will be done in restricted areas

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Photo: NOAA 2004, AP

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This image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows melon-headed whales stranded in Hanalei Bay off the Hawaiian island of Kauai July 2, 2004. For the first time, the Navy will lower the power of its sonar during maritime exercises off Hawaii this summer as part of an effort to protect marine mammals. The move comes two years after more than 150 melon-headed whales became stranded in a Kauai bay while the last Rim of the Pacific exercises were held.(AP Photo/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, File) less

This image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows melon-headed whales stranded in Hanalei Bay off the Hawaiian island of Kauai July 2, 2004. For the first time, the Navy will ... more

Photo: NOAA 2004, AP

Navy agrees to sonar curbs to protect whales

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The Navy agreed Tuesday to restrict loud sonar blasts from anti-submarine vessels in large areas of the world's oceans to protect whales and other vulnerable creatures.

A federal magistrate in San Francisco approved a settlement between the government and environmental groups that challenged the Navy's use of low-frequency sonar, loud sonic pulses that are deployed to detect enemy submarines at long distances.

Scientists say sonar damages the hearing organs of sea mammals, disrupts their lives and has caused many whale species to strand themselves on shores. The Natural Resources Defense Council, a plaintiff in the suit, said Navy studies have found that low-frequency sonar can disrupt whale behavior more than 300 miles away.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a dispute over President Bush's attempt to exempt the Navy from environmental laws restricting its use of mid-frequency sonar in training exercises off Southern California. Mid-frequency sonar travels shorter distances, but environmental groups say it is more harmful to sea creatures than low-frequency pulses.

Under Tuesday's settlement, the Navy can use low-frequency sonar only in certain areas near the Philippines and Japan, with seasonal restrictions, and in another region 50 miles north and south of Hawaii, far removed from two Hawaiian sanctuaries for marine life.

Navy officials said at the time that crews would shut off the sonar when they spotted marine mammals. But Laporte said in her ruling that the Navy was relying on visual monitoring, which is unreliable, and on sonar detection, which is limited in range and may miss dolphins and other small animals.

Tueday's settlement allows the Navy to use sonar in a restricted area when necessary to track submarines during actual operations. That exception does not apply during training.

The agreement "maintains the Navy's ability to test and train, while shielding whales and other vulnerable species from harmful underwater noise," said Michael Jasny of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Lt. Sean Robertson, a Navy spokesman, said the settlement allows operating areas for low-frequency sonar in both the western and the eastern Pacific. He said the National Marine Fisheries Service would conduct a further review under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.